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Being a new manager can be a lonely proposition.  Besides relationship issues, the new manager can feel big pressure to have all the answers.  After all, isn’t this why you got the job? 

Gather A Support Network
You don’t know everything, no one does.  That’s ok.  New managers need to not be afraid to ask questions.  You must build a network for seeking advice and counsel.  No leader is an island.  Even the president has numerous advisors.  New managers cannot succeed alone in overcoming the complicated challenge of taking over a department, function or entire organization.  Even managers that have been around a while should still be seeking advice and trying to grow as a leader.  Learning and growing as a leader should never end.  Read books and surround yourself with other leaders.

Use Your Team
Invariably, you will inherit problems and mistakes left over from predecessors.  While some may seem to be rather obvious, things often are not what they first appear to be.  If the team that you are leading has been with the company for a while, then they can give you insight into what the problems may be and how things had been done previously.  Additionally, it’s important for your team to feel ownership in their tasks and goals.  By giving them the opportunity to give their input, you facilitate that ownership and can get good ideas and solutions.

Decisions and Leadership
While it is good to be knowledgeable and you should spend plenty of time familiarizing yourself with the products/services and policies of your company, management is primarily about leadership and decision making.  Ask for advise, gather information, but in the end, the manager has to make the decisions.  Seeking advice and having counsel and mentors doesn’t mean that a manger should not take responsibility to make decisions themselves.  You should not decide anything because someone told you to make that decision (except possibly your boss), you need to make the decision because you understand the situation and believe it is the best course of action.  Then lead your team in that decision.  Inspire them, help them to take ownership of the decision, and give them the support they need to carry out their work.

It is essential that you help your team find ways to accelerate learning about markets, products, technologies, organizational capabilities, and culture.  Identifying and leveraging the best advisors — internally and externally — is the most effective way to do this.

Tags: job advice, management

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 2:57 pm and is filed under job advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.